


Close

by brilligspoons



Series: Close, Closer, Closest [1]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Fluff, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 03:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6268336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilligspoons/pseuds/brilligspoons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eponine has a close encounter, but she's not entirely sure of what kind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close

**Author's Note:**

  * For [within_a_dream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/within_a_dream/gifts).



It's not until she's trying to prop the alleyway door open so she can shift the boxes of new inventory inside that Eponine notices the tear in her shirtsleeve.

The rip is fairly large, exposing her elbow and the majority of her forearm, and for a moment Eponine can only stare at it in disbelief. She doesn't think she'd caught herself on any hooks or exposed nails or rough spots on the shop walls, and she knows it hadn't been there when she left the flat in the morning. Jehan would've pointed it out when she visited the cafe for lunch. She groans and kicks the wedge underneath the door. It _would_ be her favorite shirt that gets mysteriously ruined.

"Whatever, I'll deal with it later," she mutters, and she turns to the stack of boxes waiting against the fence.

Apparently this is all the distraction the door needs to swing itself shut, a loud _bang_ echoing down the alley and startling a shriek out of Eponine. She takes a deep breath and wills her heart to stop racing, telling herself to calm the fuck down as she scans the ground around the door for the wedge, but it's not there anymore. Eponine frowns. A heavy, orange, rubber wedge, which she had just touched with her own two hands and seen with her own two eyes—completely gone.

"What," Eponine says, "the actual fuck."

She spends more than a few minutes searching under every empty crate and box in the immediate vicinity before giving up. _I'll have to get Feuilly or someone to come back out here and help me look,_ she thinks, though the thought of one of her coworkers finding it when she couldn't makes embarrassment well up deep in her stomach. Eponine closes her eyes and counts backwards from ten before turning on her heel to walk back down the alley, hoping that none of the other shop workers will notice her when she goes past. She grinds the heels of her palms into her eyes and blinks hard as she takes a step, only to find a face an inch or two away from her own.

"Hello," the face says.

Eponine shrieks again and falls back against the boxes. The box at the top of the stack topples off and lands on the ground, and she winces at the sound of glass breaking that follows its crash. She staggers back to her feet and glares at the person (a girl with pale porcelain skin and a perfect nose and bright gold hair and the bluest eyes Eponine's ever seen), who's peering back at her with a strange smile.

"Sorry," the girl says, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Eponine means to let her have it, really, but with every word the girl speaks, she feels her irritation melt away. _That's not normal,_ she thinks, frowning, and then she hears herself say, "No problem."

"I just needed to borrow this thing," the girl tells her, holding up the rubber wedge in one hand, "but I didn't want to take it without letting you know first."

"Of course," Eponine replies. _What the fuck? This is very much not okay._ "Take whatever you need."

The girl's smile grows. She reaches forward and rubs a hand over Eponine's elbow, then pats the box that had fallen. "I'll bring it back later," she says.

And then she disappears.

Eponine blinks and looks down at her elbow. The tear in her sleeve is gone, as are all of the boxes of inventory. She glances up and down the alley, frantically wondering how she's going to explain this to her boss. The door swings open, and Feuilly pokes his head out.

"You forget to bring yourself back in after you got the boxes settled or something?" he says, and when he opens the door wider to let her inside, Eponine sees them all stacked neatly against the wall.

"Or something," she replies faintly.

**Author's Note:**

> Graphic treat, day 1: a photo of a snowy treetop outside my apartment!


End file.
